The strong aroma of the herbs, the sourness of the soup and the quality of our Penang prawn paste makes our Penang hawker food, the Assam Laksa so different from the others. There are many places around town that sells this noodle and the more well known Assam Laksa is from the stall beside the Ayer Itam Market.

A dish that tantalizes the taste buds

For those that have not tried this dish, it is definitely worth doing so. A bowl of sourish sweet Assam Laksa has smooth Lai Fen (noodle) with topped on ingredients of bunga kantan (ginger flower bud), onion, cucumber, lettuce, red chili, mint leaves, chili padi and drizzle with Heh Koh (prawn paste).

Condiment of Heh Koh (prawn paste)

A pot of boiling fish stock with plenty of fish flake with the distinctive flavor from the assam (tamarind), lemongrass, galangal (lengkuas) and chili.

The soup has a thicker texture compared to many others

The owner was seen busy preparing a bowl of Assam Laksa. To make sure the noodle is serve piping hot; the owner will pour the soup into the bowl and out back into the pot several times.

It is indeed mouth watering just looking at the bowl of Assam Laksa with the thick rice noodles in the fish soup brimming with flavor.

The stall is right beside the small market place but it can accommodate groups of visitors and tourist arriving in bus loads visiting the nearby Kek Lok Si Temple. It’s very difficult to say whether this is the best Assam Laksa or being over rated by some, but with the amount of customers day in and day out, I guess its popularity is there.

The stall is open from lunch hour right up to around 8pm. Click here for the Map Location. As for me, I am going for my bowl of Assam Laksa later. Hopefully get to hear about your favorite Assam Laksa stall too.

I like how the stall owner pours and re-pours the soup back to ensure the noodles are really hot when served. I’m guessing some food hygiene officer might object that process, but for foodies, it’s a sign of perfectionism!

Duly noted! My better half and I had the opportunity buying very cheap tickets on AirAsia for in about 3 or 4 weeks. We’ll be spending some quality time during a week testing lots of new food places. This one will be checked!
BTW, if no objection I will link your blog to mine. It’s an old one that was “parked” for more than a year. I’ve been cleaning itup and revived it since a few days.
Traffic is very low but I hope within a year to increase the visits. For the moment it also is free of publicity.http://diehardowl.wordpress.com/

I think the laksa man pours and repours the soup in order to “trap” as much of the minced fish meat as possible; and also to heat up the noodles, I suppose.
But I used to like the laksa in Kek Seng coffee shop. But the shops cleanliness, or lack of it, was too much for me. Not even it’s durian ice-cream could lure me back unless they clean up the place.

There were much raves about this place but it’s not as good as before. My Ayer Itam-born friends claimed it as well. I used to stay in the area for several years. So, I had enough of this famous ‘Murky’ Assam Laksa by the market. When I’m in Ayer Itam, I usually go across into the fruit market opposite this seller. The Fruit Market I referred to is where the known Cooked Koay Teow Soup and Charcoal Char Koay Teow (beware if you order his Char Koay Teow, it’s really slow but yummy! You can get it quick if there’s not much customers though) located. This Assam Laksa seller is mute but he does understand your orders For me, I like it better then the famous seller because the soup is not murky and you can see the chunks of fresh fish in your bowl. I mean the fish meat is fresh not dried and dark. Place is clean too This is my opinion ya…:-)

I can say the laksa at this place is not as tasty as before. I would nauseate upon being greeted by the stench of the drain there. This is not going to help my taste buds. Surely there are better places to have laksa.

Hey nice pics! Made me hungry just looking at them, good info, nice job…I love a good laksa and I’m putting together my ultimate laksa guide, you can see it here if you like! http://www.squidoo.com/ultimate_laksa_guide

The best Assam Laksa in Penang is at Hot & Spicy Cafe, Jalan Air Itam main road, opposite Public Bank Air Itam branch, in front of the old Choong Nam cinema (now a church), just a few doors away from Shell petrol station. It’s many times better than Air Itam laksa!!!!!

WTF!!! I came to visit Pasar Air Itam Laksa because somesay the laksa is one of the must try food in Penang. My wife and I wanna save room for some other delicous food in Penang, so we just order 1 laksa and we share it. My friends also ordered 1 laksa and share with his wife.

Out of sudden the beverage stall worker automatically put 3 sugar cane ice and force you to pay. WTF! Why must I drink sugar cane in the first place! I was intented to order coconut ice because the weather is hot and try to cool down the heat but… F***, I rejected him and he try to threatened me by saying “You must order drink in order to have laksa here”… !@#$. I don’t like to be forced to do something that I don’t want to and still I rejected him again. !@#$.

Finally the laksa is served and it cost RM3.50 each and my wife gave the old lady RM50. After waited for like 20mins, the old lady still hasn’t returned RM43 and I called the lady for my change. The f***ing old aunty return me just RM3 and insist she accepts only RM10 from my wife. WTF, RM50 become RM10!! I argue with her and she runs back to the stall (maybe trying to get cover from the stall owner). I followed her to the stall and start asking for the change from the owner. F***, the owner said that the aunty will only accept RM10 from customer and for RM50, other worker will collect from you. WHAT?! I was stunned and this is the first time I heard this kind of reason to cheat money. The stall owner also said I should have asked for the change immediately. !@#$ F***, they have many customer and very busy so it is normal for them to take time to return my change. Their worker start to accuse I have made a mistake. F***!! No point to keep arguing with this kind of rude people, my wife throw back the RM3 at them and stormed out….. F*** spoiled my holiday mood…. Rm50 for 2 F***ing asam laksa!!
Your food is famous doesn’t mean you have the right to treat customer in such manner.

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